Gaston Ave. Baptist Church, ca. 1961, domeless
by Paula Bosse
Gaston Avenue Baptist Church, at Gaston and Haskell, opened to its congregation in 1904. (The photo above is from about 1961.) The church was designed by architect C. W. Bulger, whose most important Dallas building was almost certainly the Praetorian Building downtown. Bulger was a prominent architect and a prominent Baptist — he designed several Baptist churches, and, conveniently, he lived on Junius Street, not far from the Gaston Avenue church.
This building is imposing and impressive, but every time I drive past it, something just feels “off.” (See it on Google Street View here.) It’s that canary-yellow “gold” dome. Otherwise, it’s a beautiful building.
Here’s what it looked like in its earliest days:
This postcard was postmarked June 2, 1906 — the message reads:
June 2, 06. This is the first building that I worked on in Texas and cost about 45,000. Is built of brick and cemented outside. Is one of the finest churches here. Best wishes, H.E.S.
And another:
When you compare the early photos with the one from 1961, there are a few differences. Namely… the dome (…or lack thereof). It was built with a dome. But by 1961, the dome was gone. Why?
Here is what the building looks like these days (it is now the home of Criswell College):
Google Street View, June 2024
Dome.
What’s the deal here? I hate to be a negative Nellie, but every time I drive past that dome (which is often), I wince. It looks like sun-faded matte gold paint. It’s a beautiful building. It deserves a better dome!
After searching a bit, here’s what I found. In response to a reader’s question in 1991 asking what the “golden dome” was made of, The News responded:
MFG Molded Fiberglass in Union City, Pa. fabricated it of 1/2-inch molded fiberglass impregnated with gold-flecked paint… Both the dome and the bay section — the white collar that protrudes from the roof line — are composed of 12 separate pieces… The dome’s cap is composed of four pieces… and the spire that tops the structure is a single unit… [T]he structure stands approximately 35 feet above the roof of the library and weighs about 6,000 lbs. (Dallas Morning News, June 6, 1991)
Fiberglass, impregnated with gold-flecked paint. I don’t know when this happened, but more than 33 years ago. The gold-flecked paint has seen better days, beaten into submission by the relentless Texas sun. I’m sure it would probably cost a small fortune to spruce it up, but it would be nice to see it gold and shiny.
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Sources & Notes
Top photo by Squire Haskins, from the Squire Haskins Photography, Inc. Collection, University of Texas at Arlington Libraries, Special Collections; more info on this photo is here (see interior photos taken by Haskins at the same time here and here).
Postcard was found on eBay.
The photo captioned “A Mighty Fortress” is from a TSHA Annual Meeting 1977 publication, via the Portal to Texas History.
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Copyright © 2024 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
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